Slideshow | Xi Jinping: China’s new leader is an unusual man 11 Photos . Updated: 15 Nov 2012, 10:00 AM IST Livemint China's Communist elite have just elected a new leader to succeed Hu Jintao. A look at the new party leader Xi Jinping. 1/11China’s new party supremo Xi Jinping (centre) kicks a football as he visits Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland on 19 February 2012. He is the son of Xi Zhongxun, a Communist revolutionary hero and former vice premier. AFP 2/11Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 18 August 2011. After graduating in chemical engineering from Qinghua in 1979, he became secretary to Geng Biao, then vice premier and minister of national defense. AFP 3/11Xi married Peng Liyuan (in picture), a renowned folk song singer in China, in 1987. The couple has a daughter. Xinhua 4/11Xi Zhongxun (left), China’s former premier and father of China’s Vice President Xi Jinping, talks with Gyalo Thondup, brother of the Dalai Lama, in Beijing in 1987. Reuters 5/11Xi shares a toast during a state dinner at the Iowa State Capitol on 15 February 2012. Xi’s working style has been summed up in his own words as ‘Do it now’. AFP 6/11Xi meets US President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, DC on 14 February 2012. Xi was named as one of the most influential people in the world in the 2009, 2011 and 2012 Time 100 lists. AFP 7/11Xi jokes about receiving a gift of popcorn at the home of Roger and Sarah Lande in Muscatine, Iowa, during his first visit to Iowa in 1985. The new Chinese leader is known to maintain a low profile. AFP 8/11On a visit to Ireland in February 2012, Xi pets a calf while minister of agriculture, food and marine Simon Coveney (left) look on. Over the years, he has a built a strong connect with “common folk”.AFP 9/11Xi talks to a farmer Rick Kimberley as they sit in the cab of a tractor while touring the latter’s family farm on 16 February 2012 in Maxwell, Iowa. AFP 10/11Xi signs a basketball at Dujiangyan Qingchengshan high school outside Chengdu in China’s southwest province of Sichuan on 21 August 2011 even as US Vice President Joe Biden (centre) talks with a student. AFP 11/11This photo dated 28 March 2007 shows Xi, then head of the Zhejiang provincial government, greeting well-wishers before his move to Shanghai’s top spot, in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province. AFP